Two notable women anchor this evening of dance at The Mount Without, Bristol. Choreographer Antonia Franceschi, known for her role in the film Fame at age 19 and her work with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, presents a double portrait of artist Lee Krasner. Franceschi’s short opener, Excerpts from Kinderszenen, offers a snapshot of neo-Balanchine style.
The centrepiece, Prophecy (still a work in progress), is a dance-theatre sketch of Krasner’s life and her relationship with Jackson Pollock. Created with writer and director Sara Joyce, the piece uses voiceover readings of Krasner and Pollock’s words. Roseanna Anderson portrays the young Lee in 1930s New York, “determined to devour life. God help anyone who gets in her way.” The work explores her antagonistic yet influential relationship with the alcoholic Pollock, and the subjugation of her own talents to the myth of male genius. She cooks, cleans, renovates their home, and squeezes her artmaking into the smallest bedroom, while Pollock stands in his giant barn-studio, just thinking.
Substantial text in the voiceover allows the choreography to be often minimal and effective, highlighting a word or mood with a feisty scribble of hands or a tenderly laid head. The intention is to turn Prophecy into a full-length production charting Krasner’s life, a prospect the reviewer welcomes.
There is also a ballet inspired by Krasner’s paintings, called Uncaged. Claire van Kampen’s live music has some of the fragmented mystery and dynamism of Krasner’s art, with piano chords like daubs of paint. However, the music and choreography—with its elegant unfolding of limbs and careful partnering—do not obviously speak to each other.
The finest dancing comes from former Royal Ballet principal Edward Watson in the solo Asylum, part of the show for two performances only. Watson’s Egon Schiele-esque body warps itself around the choreography in a masterclass of shapeshifting.
